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ghoulnextdoor's review
4.0
Kim Newman (Anno Dracula, etc.) is an author who I’ve been meaning to read for years now, but never got around to it until Angels of Music was thrust upon me by a well-meaning friend at a holiday party last month. Newman writes a heady brew of horror, crime, fantasy noir, and this title in particular combines a measure of each of these fantastical elements–imagine if you will, a Victorian Charlie’s Angels, as masterminded by The Phantom of the Opera. Written serial-style, the book comprises five separate adventures with a revolving door of familiar faces as the titular Angels–we spend time with such noted characters as Lady Snowblood, Eliza Doolittle, and Irene Adler as the Phantom’s team of elite female agents who repeatedly save Paris from diabolical masterminds. If it sounds ridiculous, well, it is, just a little. But you’ll be having too much fun with it to care.
eyelashley's review
5.0
Weird, but in the best way possible. Kim Newman's story-telling style is so unique, featuring unconventionally (and conventionally) strong-willed, dangerous women, which I appreciate. There are few times where I can tell that a man wrote the female perspectives, I think only once in this novel.
Overall, I think that this is a great book. It takes a little while to get into the weird atmosphere, but once you do, it is well worth it.
Overall, I think that this is a great book. It takes a little while to get into the weird atmosphere, but once you do, it is well worth it.
gemma7's review
1.0
This book was a DNF for me.
I found it hard to connect with the characters and the style of writing didn't draw me in. The act 'Les Vampires de Paris' was the only story that was mildly interesting.
Only after DNF-ing just over half way through the book did I realise I already read a book from this author and rated that one 1 star as well. Unfortunately this author's storytelling just isn't for me.
I found it hard to connect with the characters and the style of writing didn't draw me in. The act 'Les Vampires de Paris' was the only story that was mildly interesting.
Only after DNF-ing just over half way through the book did I realise I already read a book from this author and rated that one 1 star as well. Unfortunately this author's storytelling just isn't for me.
nigellicus's review
5.0
Once upon the time there were three little girls who went to the music academy.... I can't believe how long it took me to cop on to the fact that this is a riff on Charlie's Angels, with the Phantom Of The Opera as Charlie, the Persian as Boswell and a rotating cast of three angels on hazardous duties. I think it was the first time they were given their assignment by the Phantom through a mirror with the Persian beside them in good ol' Charlie's Angel fashion. I loved Charlie's Angels when I was a kid. I wanted o be Submarina.
A succession of cases, a succession of angels going together down the mean Parisian streets, following trails and foiling schemes and battling evil. There are lots of great ideas here, and I don't want to give them away, but I particularly loved the reverse-heist in the Mark Of Kane.
It's he sheer quantity of female characters lining up to become angels. A remarkable and diverse selection of heroines or borderline personalities, from Irene Adler to Lady Snowblood to Eliza Doolittle. Many of them are neglected even in the works they appear in - here they're given a chance to shine and take centre stage, cease being marginalised and become adventuresses.
The adventures are cracking, the setting is vivid and the pop-culture underbelly is full of weirdness and nastiness and material a-plenty for the Phantom and his Angels and their hazardous duties.
A succession of cases, a succession of angels going together down the mean Parisian streets, following trails and foiling schemes and battling evil. There are lots of great ideas here, and I don't want to give them away, but I particularly loved the reverse-heist in the Mark Of Kane.
It's he sheer quantity of female characters lining up to become angels. A remarkable and diverse selection of heroines or borderline personalities, from Irene Adler to Lady Snowblood to Eliza Doolittle. Many of them are neglected even in the works they appear in - here they're given a chance to shine and take centre stage, cease being marginalised and become adventuresses.
The adventures are cracking, the setting is vivid and the pop-culture underbelly is full of weirdness and nastiness and material a-plenty for the Phantom and his Angels and their hazardous duties.
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